


Family

by Adolphus Longestaffe (adolphus_longestaffe)



Series: They Are Venom [7]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 10:17:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18009059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adolphus_longestaffe/pseuds/Adolphus%20Longestaffe





	Family

 

 

 

Eddie is lounging on the queen-sized bed in a double suite, in a hotel far nicer than the ones he’s been accustomed to lately—or ever, really. Their cross-country flight, in something Natasha called a Quinjet, had taken a little over three hours, meaning it’s around the same time in LA that it had been when they left New York. Between the extremely rapid flight, and the fact that Venom had knocked him out for the duration, Eddie can’t escape an eerie feeling of having traveled through a wormhole or something.

He has stretched out his legs and is leaning casually on the headboard, pretending to scan the room-service menu, when Natasha emerges from the bathroom. He looks up at her to say something and stops short, blinking. She seems to have undergone some kind of miraculous transformation.

Her deep-auburn hair is now the sandy, sun-streaked blonde of the ubiquitous California girl, and falls in long, loose waves about her suddenly golden-tanned shoulders. Her face is different, too. Her eyes are brown now, and he can’t tell if it’s by clever use of makeup or some kind of prosthesis, but her nose appears sharper and more aquiline, and her jaw more angular. She is dressed in a pale-pink tank top beneath which her black bra straps are visible, and tight, ankle length jeans, complete with fashionable distress placed there by the manufacturer.

He looks her up and down and makes a face. “What the fuck are you wearing?”

“A disguise, Eddie,” she says, as she sits on the other bed to pull on a pair of strappy sandals. “I’m a spy.”

“Well, you’re gonna blend right in,” he snorts, returning his eyes to the menu. “Good work.”

**She looks good. Tell her.**

“Come out here and tell her yourself, why don’t you? I’m not passing notes between you and your girlfriend.”

Venom’s head emerges over his shoulder and flashes a horrifying, fang-filled grin. “ **You look very good, Nat.** ”

“Thank you, Venom,” she says, returning a much more pleasant smile. “I’m not a big fan of these clothes, myself, but work is work. Can’t go around looking like Natasha Romanoff.”

“ **Can we go around looking like Eddie**?”

“Yeah, you guys will be ok. The CIA doesn’t have any bulletins out on Eddie.”

“ **What are bulletins**?”

“It means she’s a wanted criminal too,” Eddie says, lowering the menu. “They just want her more than they want us.”

“Don’t take it personally. I’ve killed a lot more high-profile political figures than you have. You might want to change into something a little more LA appropriate, though. You won’t blend in here in all that black.”

Eddie gives a start as Venom rapidly warps and reforms himself on his skin, then glowers at the result. He is now wearing blue-jeans, similarly faded and distressed to Natasha’s, and a tight-fitting, white t-shirt.

“I like all that black,” he grumbles.

“Well, suck it up. You can go back to being a broody goth when you get back to New York.”

“You should talk, Ms. Black Widow. I’ve never seen you _not_ wearing black.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t a broody goth too. Nice necklace, by the way. You get that from Hot Topic?”

Eddie’s cheeks flush self-consciously and he hastily tucks the hammer pendant into the collar of his t-shirt.

“ **Thor gave it to Eddie after we had sex with him** ,” Venom says helpfully.

“Thanks for explaining, V,” Eddie sighs. “I love how I sound like a whore when you tell it.”

Natasha stifles a laugh, which makes Eddie glower and raise his menu again.

“So, you like Thor, huh?” she asks Venom.

“ **Like him, yes** ,” Venom rasps. “ **He is good. But sad. Like Eddie**.”

“I am not sad!” Eddie says, jumping to his feet with an exasperated gesture. “We slept with a real-life god last night. And this morning. And he wants to see us again. I’m actually pretty fucking happy right now, so everyone shut the fuck up and let’s go kill some bad guys.”

Natasha’s smile broadens. “He wants to see you again?”

“I mean—he just, uh…” Eddie looks away, flustered, feeling heat rise in his face again. “Yeah. It’s not a big deal.”

“I don’t know,” Natasha says thoughtfully. “He asked to see you again and he gave you jewelry…kind of sounds like a big deal to me.”

“ **Giving jewelry is a big deal to humans** ,” Venom agrees, adopting Natasha’s phrasing. “ **May also be for Asgardians**.”

“What did he say?” she asks.

“Hey, are we here to do a fucking job or gossip about my sex life?” Eddie interrupts.

“ **He said it is a symbol of his favor** ,” Venom says, ignoring him.

“He said that? I wonder if there’s some kind of Asgardian power in that thing.”

This idea had not occurred to Eddie. He reaches up to touch the pendant beneath his shirt, as if any power it might carry would be somehow detectable this way. “You think there could be?”

“Maybe,” Natasha shrugs. “Either way, it does seem like a pretty clear indicator that he likes you.”

“ **We like him, too. Eddie will not admit it. He does not want to be called gay**.”

“Because I’m not gay!” Eddie exclaims, throwing his hands up in frustration. “I said that this morning because the hottest man I’ve ever seen was naked in front of me. It was a hyperbole. I like women and men, ok?”

“So you’re bisexual,” Natasha says. “Interesting.”

“What—why is that funny?” Eddie says, caught off-guard by her knowing smile. “What’s that look for?”

“Nothing. I think you’ll fit right in with the team.”

“Team? What team?”

“The Avengers, Eddie. _The_ team. We better get going. You guys ready?”

“ **Ready, Nat** ,” Venom rumbles, before retracting rapidly into Eddie.

Natasha hangs an oversized Louis Vuitton purse over her shoulder, and Eddie, who is still too bewildered to speak, follows her out the door. Outside the hotel entrance, a uniformed valet calls them Mr. and Mrs. Russo, and opens the door of a silver Range Rover that is apparently waiting for them. Natasha climbs into the driver’s seat and waits while Eddie buckles into the passenger seat, then she pulls out into the late-morning traffic on Santa Monica boulevard.

“Holy shit, this is a nice car,” Eddie says, running his hand over the leather seat. “So, uh…where are we going?”

“Right, you were asleep for that part,” Natasha says. “Coulson’s people got a couple of breaks this morning. The lead merc’s cover ID was used to book a hotel in Century City, but they also think they found the cutout. A guy named Andre Petrosyan. He’s a pretty well-known fence locally, but he’s trying to expand his operation. And he’s been shooting his mouth off around the criminal world about a big-time deal he just made with some out of town mercs. Coulson wants the guys who killed his people and we want the end buyer, so he’s going after the mercs and we’re going after Petrosyan.”

“Where is he?”

“He operates out of a warehouse in Little Armenia. He’ll be armed and he’ll probably have some security hanging around. Nothing we can’t handle.”

“Good. So, what’s the plan?”

“We’re going to walk in the front door and ask him nicely. If he doesn’t want to cooperate, we’re going to ask him less nicely.”

“Ooh, can we do good-cop bad-cop?” Eddie asks. “I always wanted to do that.”

“I don’t think it’ll come to that, but if it does, I guess we can try good-cop, big scary monster-cop.”

“What makes you think you’re the good cop? You’re a lot scarier than us.”

“You’ve got a point.”

**Nat is not scary.**

“Oh, yeah? V says you’re not scary, Nat.”

**She is small and beautiful. And very strong.**

“And he says he has a big-ass crush on you.”

“That’s very sweet, Venom,” Natasha laughs. “I have a little crush on you, too. Don’t tell Eddie, though. He might get jealous.”

“Eddie is already jealous,” Eddie says, in mock indignation. “You two better not be gettin’ too cozy.”

Natasha arches an eyebrow. “I don’t see a ring.”

“I can’t believe this,” Eddie sighs. “I’ve been a provisional contractor clearance level D for two days and I’m already getting mate-sniped.”

“Hey, you can’t just bring a guy like Venom around and expect him not to turn heads.”

**Eat heads.**

“He says he eats heads.”

“See?” Natasha grins. “He’s a natural charmer.”

As she is saying this, an alert chirps over the vehicle’s sound system, and she touches the screen on the dash to answer it.

“Hey Phil,” she says. “What’s up?”

“Hey Nat,” a male voice replies. Eddie instantly recognizes it as belonging to the pleasant-faced SHIELD agent who had approved his release. “No luck with the mercs so far. They haven’t checked out of the hotel, but the rooms are empty. No gear, nothing.”

She frowns. “You think they already skipped and stayed checked in to throw off the scent?”

“That’s what we’re thinking, yeah. I’m leaving agents here just in case. We’re also covering the airports and trying to track down their vehicles. Where are you with Petrosyan?”

“We’re on our way to have a chat with him now.”

“Good. Keep me posted.”

“Will do. Bye, Phil.”

She parks the Range Rover a little way down the block from the address Coulson had given her, and they continue on foot. The warehouse is a simple, oblong building, with grey siding and a large garage door on one end, which is open. There is another on the front, where there is also an entry door, above which the street number is posted in plain, white letters.

“What do you see, V?” Eddie asks.

**Three human males. Armed.**

“Three. Armed,” Eddie tells Natasha.

“Doesn’t sound like he thinks there’s any heat on him yet,” she says, as they approach the open garage door. At the further end of the place, a man in a purple suit is pacing in and out the door of what appears to be an office, holding a cell phone to his ear. “Maybe we can finesse this one.”

“Finesse—what does that even mean?” Eddie hisses.

“I have a plan,” she whispers. “Just tell him I need the restroom.”

The man in the purple suit finally notices the two people entering his warehouse, and snaps his phone shut, striding over to meet them.

“Hey, no trespassing,” he says, in an accent surprisingly similar to Eddie’s. “This is private property.”

“Sorry, man,” Eddie says. “We’ve been drivin’ around for forty-five minutes tryin’ to find some stupid fuckin’ nail salon. She starts bitchin’ at me to stop so she can take a piss, this is the first place I saw.”

The man eyes them up and down with a smirk. “Restroom’s for customers only, pal.”

“Customers?” Eddie asks, glancing around doubtfully.

Natasha smacks his arm and addresses him in a dead-on Jersey whine. “Buy somethin’, Eddie. My bladder’s gonna explode.”

“Christ, Natalie, would you can it for five seconds, I swear to god,” he says irritably, then nods to the man. “What’s for sale?”

“You know what?” the man says, spreading out his hands. “My door’s always open for a fellow New Yorker. Restroom’s through the office, sweetheart.”

“Thanks,” she says, with a haughty toss of her blonde hair.

The suited man watches her saunter through the door, then he turns back to Eddie. “Brooklyn?”

“Born and raised. Bed-Stuy, you?”

“Bushwick,” the man grins. “We’re practically neighbors.”

“Fuckin’ LA just ain’t the same, man,” Eddie says, shaking his head. “How do you like it here?”

“It’s got its charms. You been in town long?”

“Couple months. The wife dragged me out here to chase her Hollywood dreams. You know how that goes. I’m doing fuckin’ landscaping jobs to pay the bills while she’s out on auditions all day and night. Eddie, by the way.”

He holds out his hand and the man shakes it.

“Andy. You know, big guy like you, I bet you could get into security pretty easy.”

“Security?” Eddie snorts. “Catch me in a stupid uniform carryin’ a flashlight around. I’ll stick to landscaping.”

“Nah, that’s for retirees,” Andy says. “I mean private security. Like the guys I got working for me.”

He indicates to a pair of towering, rather obese gentlemen, standing idly beside a fork lift.

Eddie cocks an eyebrow. “That kinda thing pay well?”

“Better than day-labor. And it’s all under the counter, so uncle Sam keeps his nose outta the trough.”

“Sounds interesting, but uh…I wouldn’t know where to look. Unless you’re hiring.”

Andy crosses his arms. “That depends. You got any experience?”

“Me? Fuck no. I boxed back home, but I never did anything like security.”

“You any good?”

“Eh. Pretty good. Nat won’t let me do it anymore, though, so I’m gettin’ soft.”

“If this is you soft, you must be a monster in a fight,” Andy laughs.

“You have no idea,” Eddie says, with a wink.

“I’ll tell you what, why don’t you take my card. Gimme a call and we’ll see if we can work something out.”

“Thanks, man. I’ll do that,” Eddie says, accepting the proffered business card.

At that moment, Natasha returns and hooks her arm into his.

“I’m hungry, Eddie,” she pouts. “Let’s go.”

**Yes. Hungry, Eddie.**

“Good to meet you, Andy. Thanks again,” Eddie calls back, as she tugs him toward the door.

Once they are outside and well out of earshot, he looks at her questioningly.

“I got into his computer while you were distracting him,” she says. “He had records of all his transactions right there in an excel spreadsheet. We make a pretty good team, Eddie.”

“Thanks. You hacked his computer in like, two minutes?”

“Yep.”

Eddie eyes her for a beat. “His password was written down somewhere, wasn’t it.”

She smiles slyly up at him. “On a post-it note stuck to the underside of his desk. It was ‘boobies’ spelled with two zeros and a three.”

“At least these criminal types aren’t getting any smarter. Where we going?”

“The buyer was listed as A.G. The delivery address is Alchemax HQ.”

“San Francisco?”

“Yep. Let’s head back to the hotel and pack up. It’ll take about ten minutes to fly there, but we should wait till after dark to do recon. You gonna be ok?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t think I’d be going back any time soon.”

“Well, we’ve got quite a bit of time to kill. Any old friends you want to drop in on?”

“That’s funny,” Eddie grouses. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a real funny-guy?”

 

 

 

 

“Eddie…oh my god.”

“Hey, Annie,” Eddie says sheepishly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “How’s it going?”

“You fucking asshole!” Annie says, as she practically leaps across the threshold and throws her arms around him. “Where the fuck have you been?”

Eddie pulls his hands back out of his pockets to return the embrace. “Oh…you know. Around. This is my friend Nat.”

“Nice to meet you, Nat,” Annie says, nodding politely to the petite redhead, who she had failed to see standing on the step behind Eddie. “Come in, please.”

“Who is it, honey?” a male voice calls from the kitchen, as they follow her inside.

A tall, somewhat thin, rather nice looking man comes around the corner drying his hands with a dish towel and stops short.

“Eddie, holy shit!” he exclaims. “It’s so good to see you, man! How have you been?”

“Hey, Dan,” Eddie says. “I been alright. This is my friend Nat.”

Dan steps forward to shake Natasha’s hand then pauses, as a look of astonishment spreads across his face.

“Oh my—you’re Natasha Romanoff,” he stammers. “I am…a huge fan of yours, ma’am.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Natasha smiles. “I didn’t know I had fans.”

“You definitely do,” Dan says, still beaming and shaking her hand. “Wow, it’s such an honor to meet you in person.”

Annie clears her throat, at which point Dan promptly lets go and returns to his lady’s side.

“A huge fan?” Annie asks him. “What are you talking about?”

“This is Natasha Romanoff, Annie,” Dan says enthusiastically, as if this is explanation enough. Seeing that it is not, he elaborates. “She’s an Avenger. She was all over the news after the thing in New York. You know, with the Hulk and Captain America.”

“Oh,” Annie says, raising her eyebrows. “Holy shit. Um…how do you know Eddie?”

“From work,” Natasha says casually. “We’re here on a case together.”

“Eddie, you’re—” Dan drops his dish towel and stoops hastily to collect it. “Eddie, you’re working with the fucking Avengers?”

“Yeah, that’s what they tell me,” Eddie mutters, running his fingers through his hair. “We both are.”

Annie’s eyes flicker to Natasha and back to Eddie. “You…both?”

“Yeah, him too. V, get out here and say hello, would you?”

Venom’s black head snakes out and solidifies near Eddie’s shoulder, with his customary leering grin.

“ **Hello, Annie** ,” he rumbles. “ **Hello, Dan**.”

At the appearance of the symbiote, Natasha observes an instant change on the blonde woman’s face. Her smile warms and brightens, and there is clearly some real affection between them.

“Venom!” Dan laughs delightedly. “I’m so glad you guys are back together!”

“Hey, V,” Annie says, in a softer tone. “We missed you.”

“ **We have missed you as well, Annie**.”

“Your little buddy’s gonna be happy to see you. He’s been sleeping on your bed since you left, you know. Dan thinks he’s pining.”

“Speak of the devil,” Eddie says, looking down at his feet, where a fluffy, orange and white cat has appeared and begun insistently headbutting his shin. “Hey shithead, you miss us?”

Eddie bends down to scoop up the cat, who sniffs at Venom’s face over his shoulder. Venom curls out a tendril and strokes the fur under its chin, a gesture of which the cat approves, and purrs loudly to communicate as much.

“Hey, you know what? You guys should stay for dinner,” Dan offers hospitably. “I made a ton of food.”

“Oh, we couldn’t—” Eddie begins.

“That sounds great,” Natasha cuts him off. “If Annie doesn’t mind, of course.”

“Not at all,” Annie says. “He always overcooks, so the more the merrier, I say.”

A little while later the small group is seated around Annie and Dan’s dinner table, enjoying the delicious vegetable lasagna and fresh bread Dan has made, apparently from scratch.

“A doctor and an excellent cook,” Natasha says, accepting a second glass of wine. “He’s a keeper, Annie. Don’t let this one get away.”

“Oh, I know it,” Annie replies archly. “Once you find a good one, you gotta plant your flag and hold your ground.”

Eddie puts a hand on his heart. “I feel personally attacked, here.”

“What about you, Nat?” Annie asks, ignoring him. “You got someone special?”

“Not me. I am out of the dating game,” Natasha laughs. “I have a severely malfunctioning man-picker.”

“Aw, it can’t be that bad. We all have to kiss some frogs before we find our prince.”

“Frogs?” Eddie interjects. “Dan, tell your wife to stop picking on me.”

Dan stuffs some bread into his mouth and mumbles something unintelligible.

“Quiet, you two,” Annie admonishes. “Nat, you were saying?”

“Well, I’ve loved exactly two men in my life,” Natasha says, swirling the wine in her glass. “They are in love with each other.”

Annie frowns sympathetically. “I’m so sorry, honey.”

“Yep. And one of them has shot me. More than once.”

“Oh my god,” Annie says, taken aback. “I thought Eddie getting me fired was bad. He shot you? With a gun?”

“Yeah, but it was professional, not personal,” Natasha shrugs. “And he shot his boyfriend a lot more times than he shot me, so I feel like I got off pretty easy.”

“I think I’d be cautious about men too, after that. Still, I’m sure a woman like you could meet a nice, non trigger-happy one. What about that Captain America? He sure is cute. And I bet he’s a gentleman, too.”

“He is very much a gentleman,” Natasha laughs. “But I really am happy on my own for now.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Annie winces. “Us old married people are always trying to convert everyone else.”

“You don’t try to convert me,” Eddie says indignantly.

“You got V, Eddie, you’re fine,” Annie says, patting his arm, then the demonic head hovering beside it.

Venom flicks his tongue and looks eminently pleased, then returns his attention to the floor, where he is dangling thin black tendrils for the cat to bat about and attempt to capture.

“So, what kind of case are you guys on?” Dan asks. “Or—oops, that’s probably super top-secret Avengers stuff.”

Natasha laughs. “It is super top-secret Avengers stuff, but don’t worry, the city isn’t in danger or anything. Just a little issue with some stolen property.”

“Speaking of which,” Eddie says, with a glance at his phone. “We better get going.”

“Aw, already?” Annie asks, looking genuinely disappointed.

“Unfortunately, duty calls,” Natasha says. “But this was absolutely lovely. Thank you so much for letting us drop in on you like this.”

“It was our pleasure,” Dan replies, as they rise from the table. “We’re always happy to see these guys. And any friend of theirs is welcome too, obviously.”

“Absolutely,” Annie agrees. She scoops up the cat and carries it with her to see them off. “If you get a chance, stop by again before you leave town, ok?”

At the door, Eddie shakes Dan’s hand and kisses Annie’s cheek.

“ **Goodbye, Annie. Goodbye, Dan** ,” Venom says, then snakes over to nuzzle the cat affectionately. “ **Goodbye, shithead. Slay many enemies**.”

They step out into the darkened street and walk briskly to the black SUV provided by SHIELD, which had been waiting for them—ironically—at the Hunters Point shipyard, where Natasha had landed the stealthed Quinjet.

Eddie raises an eyebrow as she opens the driver’s side door. “You driving? You had two glasses of wine, missy.”

“That wasn’t enough to impair me even back when I _could_ get drunk,” Natasha retorts, climbing into her seat. Eddie fastens his seatbelt as she activates the GPS, then they pull out into the bustling San Francisco traffic. “So, Annie and Dan know about Venom.”

Eddie nods. “They knew about him from the beginning. Dan was the only person who believed I was sick, not nuts, and he made Annie bring me to the hospital.”

“You stayed with them after the thing with SHIELD too, right?”

“Yeah,” Eddie says bitterly. “The thing.”

“ **Annie and Dan care for Eddie very much** ,” Venom interjects. “ **They are good**.”

“They are,” Natasha says. “You seem to have a knack for attracting good people, Eddie. Venom, Annie and Dan, even Thor.”

Eddie eyes her cagily. “I noticed you’re not on that list.”

“I’m not good people,” she grins.

“ **You are good, Nat** ,” Venom rumbles softly. “ **A hero. Your pain does not control you**.”

“Pain?” Eddie asks.

Natasha keeps her eyes on the road and offers nothing further, so he sits back and gazes out the window on the city that had been his home for some of the best and worst years of his life. When the blip on the GPS display indicates they are within six blocks of their objective, Natasha finds a parking spot, then engages the blackout function on the vehicle’s windows.

“What’s goin on?” Eddie asks, as she climbs over the seat into the back.

“I gotta change,” she says, reaching into her black duffel bag. “Not everyone has a Venom.”

Eddie turns to face forward again. “So, you know Captain America, huh?”

“Yep.”

“He’s a big-time local hero in Brooklyn. They even turned his childhood home into a museum.”

“That’s not really his house,” Natasha says, pulling her black, aramid-mesh bodysuit up over her legs.

“It’s not?”

“Nope. He lived in a shitty little one-room apartment with his mother till she died. The building got condemned and torn down by the city while he was away fighting the Nazis.”

“Fuck me,” Eddie laughs. “I’m glad I never went to the museum, then. I grew up hearing all kinds of stories about how a kid from Brooklyn saved the world. I asked my pop and he said the government made it all up, and he was nothing but war propaganda.”

“They made up a lot of things about him, yeah,” Natasha replies. She fastens her boot and pushes her foot into the second. “But what they really got wrong is that he’s ten times the man they say, and more of a hero than this world has ever deserved.”

“Is that true?” he says, turning around to look at her. “You swear?”

“Steve Rogers is the best man I have ever known. I would follow him anywhere he led, and I’d die for him without a second thought. Except that asshole would probably find a way to beat me to it and die for me, first. He is what we—all of us—are supposed to be.”

Eddie is silent for a long moment. When he speaks again, his voice is rough with emotion.

“I always believed in him, you know,” he says, then clears his throat. “My pop was full of shit. He thought everyone was just as selfish and malicious as he was. I got into journalism because I wanted to find out all the facts for myself firsthand, and prove him wrong. For my senior project, I went around and interviewed old-timers who’d been in Army units Captain Rogers had fought with."

“What did you find out?”

“Every single one of them told me pretty much what you just did, and half of them refused believe he was really dead. I assumed that was mostly wishful thinking with some senility mixed in, but…then he showed up and saved the world again. It felt like all the things I wanted to believe as a kid came true. I always wanted to do good and protect the little guy, like he did. I tried even harder after that.”

“That would mean a lot to him. If I’d known how important he was to you, I’d have taken you to meet him before we left New York.”

“ **Take us after** ,” Venom says. “ **Want to meet Steve Rogers**.”

Eddie shakes his head. “No. I fucked up too bad. I couldn’t even look him in the face now.”

“You’re wrong,” Natasha says, fastening the buckles on her Kevlar vest. “You’ve got a choice. You can still be the kind of man Steve would respect.”

“How can you say that?” he asks bitterly. “You know what we are.”

“You like to think you’re so unforgivable, Eddie, but you haven’t even scratched the surface,” she says, with sudden heat. “I’m a lot older than you. I’ve had a lot more chances to fuck up and way more time to regret it. And you know what? Steve knows about all of it. And he still calls me his friend and trusts me with his life. The shit you guys have done is nothing in comparison. So get off the fucking self-pity trip and choose to be a better man. That’s all it takes.”

Eddie shakes his head and turns away again, crossing his arms on his chest. Venom retracts inside him and they sit in silence, while Natasha straps on her holsters and various other weapons, over which she pulls on her black leather jacket. When she’s ready, they climb out of the vehicle and head toward the the massive monolith of the Transbay Tower, which contains Alchemax’s west coast corporate headquarters.

As they near Mission street, they slip into a dark driveway between a five-story mixed residential building, and an ugly, modern skyscraper marked “Salesforce West.” Venom appears, rapidly flowing out over Eddie’s skin, building his solid, oily-black musculature and protective hide around his darling’s fragile human flesh. He hooks a massive arm around Natasha’s small waist and scales the five story wall, setting her carefully on her feet when they reach the rooftop. Across the street, the tower looms high above all the other architecture. They crouch and slink to the edge of the roof, to get a clear view of the entrance.

“Alchemax is on the fifty-sixth floor,” Natasha says. “We can try to go up through the middle and risk alerting security, or we could try climbing it and go in from the sixty-first floor observation deck.”

“ **Outside is better** ,” Venom says. “ **Faster. You are not afraid**?”

“Nah, it’ll be fun,” she smiles. “Think you can carry me all the way up there?”

“ **Easily. You are very small**.”

“Ok, let’s do it.”

Venom crouches and she wraps her arms around his neck, then grips his midsection with her surprisingly strong legs. He throws thick tendrils snugly around her, strapping her securely to his back, then stands to his full height.

“ **Ready**?”

“Ready.”

He extends his clawed hand and flings a long strand of black webbing across the expanse of street, then leaps into the air, swinging in an arc, flinging more webbing to gain height as they go. When they reach the side of the building, he takes hold with his hands and feet, and ascends like an extraordinarily fast and agile (if wildly oversized) lizard, keeping his body almost flush against the surface.

Within a couple of minutes, they reach the observation deck and drop silently to the concrete surface, where Venom crouches behind a pillar and releases Natasha. She leans out and scans the area. Finding it empty and dark, she moves to head for the door, but Venom suddenly goes on high alert. He grabs her hand and pulls her back.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, in a whisper.

“ **Something here**.” His opal-white eyes go wide. “ **One of us. One like me**.”

“Where is it?”

“ **Down** ,” Venom says, pointing to the door. “ **Close by**.”

“This feels like a trap, Venom,” she says. “We should get out of here and call for backup.”

“ **No, no** ,” he half moans, quickly growing frantic and agitated. “ **Know its scent. It is little one. Our baby. Our baby lives. It is there**.”

“Your baby,” she breathes. “Fuck. Venom…are you sure?”

“ **Yes. Know its scent. Feel its mind. Must go to little one now**.”

“Ok,” she says. “I guess we’re going in.”

Venom lays a clawed hand on her shoulder to stay her. “ **No, Nat. Even our young are dangerous. Little one will not know you are a friend**.”

“That’s right. I’m a friend. And I’m not letting you walk into a trap alone.”

“ **I am sorry, Nat**.”

“For what?”

She looks down to see black cords already whipping around her body, too rapidly for her to react. In the blink of an eye, she is bound fast, arms pinned to her sides and ankles together.

“God damn it, Venom!” she hisses. “Don’t do this! If I’m tied up and shit goes south in there, I can’t help you!”

“ **Must go alone, Nat. Must not put you in danger**.”

She struggles vainly against the cords, then falls back against the pillar with a resigned sigh. “Please don’t get yourselves killed.”

“ **We will not**.”

With that, Venom lopes across the deck and slips in the door. Natasha watches him till he vanishes into the dark inside, then begins to work her wrist back and forth in the tendril bonds. Finally, a tiny, metallic disk drops from her sleeve into her hand.

“Fuck me,” she mutters. “This is going to hurt.”

She braces herself and pinches it between her thumb and forefinger, causing a burst of blue electricity to spark out over her body. Unfortunately, it has no effect on Venom’s black webbing, which stays firmly in place, just as he left it. She remains blithely unaware of this fact for the moment, however, as the device does knock her instantly and thoroughly unconscious.

Venom slinks through the darkened halls, their entire being afire with one single, overpowering refrain. The most precious thing. The small and fragile heartbeat. The thing that is part of them both. Beyond hope and fear and deadly rage, their baby lives.

They smell humans. Some are nearby. On a lower floor. Little one is alone. Not alone. It is with one human. They are together. Bonded.

Their chest constricts with pangs of grief. Too young to be bonded. This human will be able to control and manipulate little one. May hurt it. Use it as a weapon. But tearing them apart may kill it, now.

They descend the last flight of stairs and pushes open a door. A large, empty office. Dark and silent. No humans here, but the one who is with little one. It is close. In this room. Eddie’s heart pounds inside his other’s skin, tense and taut, torn with anguish, straining in every fiber of their being to find what they seek. They come around the corner and stop, standing frozen in place, as their eyes fall on a creature like them, silhouetted in the floor-to-ceiling window.

It is smaller, and its humanoid body bears visible female characteristics. Its hide is a slick, purple-black in the bright moonlight. It turns, and two pairs of identical, opalescent eyes lock on to one another, prehensile tongues curling and flicking in the air before them.

“ **Little one** ,” Venom rasps warily.

Its mouth splits wider, revealing more of its long, curved razorblade fangs. “ **Father**.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
